Debunking the 5 most common UX myths

UX is a buzzword that has made rounds in the design world, advocated and embraced by designers and developers everywhere. By now, most of the people know that UX stands for User Experience. But knowing what it stands for isn’t the same as actually understanding the concept. Even people from the UX designing industry have a hard time explaining what UX is, to their clients. Technological barriers and failure to understand certain concepts lead to misinterpretations and unavoidable misconceptions.

These are 5 most common myths about UX. Let’s bust them one at a time.

1. UX is a Verb

UX is often perceived to be a verb by many a people. Clients ask designers to ‘do the UX’ for them. But what do they actually intend to say?

‘Doing the UX’ means:

• Providing a clear structure

• Writing a copy that complements the design

• Rendering a seamless navigation

• Improving the performance and speed

• Deriving rich data through extensive research

• Transforming the journey of users

It is important to understand that UX isn’t one step in the process, but is integrated into the entire development. It isn’t a part of a checklist, but an ongoing effort throughout the evolution of the product or service.

You don’t ‘do the UX’; you ‘enhance the UX’.

2. UX is a one-man job

Most clients deduce that one single person is responsible for successfully formulating, designing, implementing and validating the user’s experience with a product. But this isn’t the case. The process of UX is a multitude of joint effort of a dedicated team.

As a result, UX companies are adopting an agile approach which involves iteration and continuous feedback and planning, testing, integration, and other forms of continuous progression of both the project and the software.

For successful execution of UX strategies, a well coordinated design-centric team consisting of marketers, engineers, product managers, etc., must work alongside a team of writers, researchers, aligned with UX needs and can easily get started with the build process on their own, rather than waiting for the core design team to initiate the mock-up first.

Source: Google

Hence, yielding a successful UX is anything but a one-man job.

3. UX = UI

User Experience and User Interface aren’t synonymous. UI is, in fact, a part of the overall UX. While they’re not mutually exclusive, the two terms also cannot be used interchangeably. It’s nearly impossible to work on user experience without considering the user interface—and vice-versa. In a majority of cases, the UX designer does, as a matter of fact, design the interface.

At the most basic level, the user interface (UI) is the series of screens, pages, and visual elements—like buttons and icons—that you use to interact with a device.

User experience (UX), on the other hand, is the internal experience that a person has as they interact with every aspect of a company’s products and services.

Source: Google

It isn’t UI/UX, it’s UI and UX.

4. Minimalism is the only way to go

Minimalism under the guise of simplicity is definitely on top of the list. While simplicity is indeed a key factor for product triumph, it is frequently confused with tremendous reduction. The concept of minimalism is getting popular but it is important to understand that it isn’t the only option available. The overall experience of a website differs based on the product offering and culture. A graphic designing company and a B2B site, do not essentially offer the same kind of experience offline, so why must they seem similar online. Quirky animations and vibrant colours can provide a unique identity and character to certain products and services.

Minimalist designs and interfaces may often lead to hidden complications, causing more resistance and cognitive load.

Furthermore, consideration must be taken to make sure not to oversimplify for the sake of minimalism. While widely believed ‘Less is more’, sometimes ‘Less is also, insufficient’.

5. UX is a choice

Another misconception is that clients recognize UX as yet another marketing approach, a choice that can be overlooked. What they fail to understand is that UX will take place regardless of any marketing efforts. UX Designers don’t just write a simple line a code and simply “add” UX to an interface. The UX was already there?— and was probably making the user’s life miserable.

Clients are in a fix whether or not they should hire a UX designer. Consumers experience subliminal perception from marketing messages that influence them without their conscious knowledge. In a similar fashion, users go through experiences while interacting with a product/service.

Source: Google

So, the ultimate choice here is to either improve the experience or deteriorate it.